Sarah Jane Adventures - Invasion of the Bane
by allyce1
Summary: Some of us might think we know Sarah Jane. Some of us might even think we know all that there is to know. But what if you were wrong? What if something were to happen that you didn't expect? What if a mysterious young girl were to appear in Sarah Jane's attic and re-write the whole adventure? Read on for the adventure of a lifetime.
1. Chapter 1

Sarah Jane Adventures

Invasion of the Bane

A girl collapsed on a heap, on a floor. Her startlingly straight and beautifully blonde hair covered her face. She lifted her teardrop-shaped face, and stood up, and her skin almost shimmered with thousands of tiny sparkles where the shadows fell onto her snow-pale skin, but it also held a mysterious red tint to it, the colour of an ember from a dying fire, but due to the paleness of her skin, it wasn't that noticeable unless you were of the observant sort. She wore a purple T-shirt, and a slightly darker purple padded jacket, with a pair of faded blue jeans. Her eyes were a startling blue colour - the colour of a lagoon. She could smell the perfumed scent of someone underneath her feet, her steps light as she walked. She was of no danger to her, she could hear her heart rate and it was regular - unsurprised. But there was also a buzzing, a mechanical buzzing, something else in the room -

"Alien life-form detected," a smooth, unmistakably male voice said, and she immediately tried bolting for the open door in a blur. It slammed shut, and she drew back her fist and punched. Her hand went straight through the hardened wood, a if it were paper. However, the instant she did so, a blue cylinder of light enveloped her, trapping her.

"Let me out!" she cried, looking around for any flaw in the blue energy that had now moved her directly in front of the chimney stack with no effort - it had simply slid her there...

She turned sharply, and took in a breath. The room was full of weird and wonderful things, flowing thin material that seemed to float on their own, strange glowing metal cubes, and seemingly ordinary objects, such as pens and watches. And, at the far end of the room, the chimney seemed to have opened, revealing a computer.

It was not a usual everyday computer - it was magnificent, with a big screen, undulating in complex patterns, with flashing buttons, symbols in a weird language. She halted, hand outstretched. She stumbled slightly, catching a flash of the future about this computer. The flash was fast, even for her. She almost missed it.

"What are you?" she whispered, focusing hard on it.

"I am Mr Smith," the computer said, in that smooth unhurried tone.

"No, I wasn't asking for your name," she said sweetly, but with an undercurrent of deadly danger in her young voice. "What ARE you?"

"I am a computer," it said simply.

"No," she replied, sweeter still. "You are alive. Sentient. You know, you feel, you live. Tell me what you are."

"He is alien," said another voice from the doorway.

She turned sharply.

It was a normal, human woman, in her 40's or even 50's, in a pale tan three-quater length coat, smart jeans and brownish hair shoulder-length. Her expression was far from the shocked, flustered expression that the strange girl would have expected with most humans. Her expression was still half-surprised, but she sank into a hunter's crouch, ready to either flee or attack. She let loose a feral growl, low and threatening, baring her teeth, her incisors and canines slightly pointed, and should have made every hair on her head stand on end. True, the woman did grow slightly paler, but she did not run.

"What is your name, human?" she asked, tilting her head in curiosity.

The human appeared shocked at first, but recovered.

"My name is Sarah Jane Smith," she replied, almost proudly. "And you are...?"

"I don't have a name," the girl answered. "But I call myself lots of different things. The Watcher, Nighthawk, Reese, Babette...call me Cicely if it pleases you. That's a name that I usually use for introductions...not that I get a lot of them..."

"And your species?"

"Half-and-half," the girl answered. "I have no true race or people. Half human, I expect. Beyond that, I must frustrate you."

"Willingly or not?" Sarah Jane demanded. "When she did not reply, she asked, "Do you know your heritage, or your parents?"

"My parents..." Cicely sighed. She seemed lost for a second, but then came back with a snarl.

"I have no parents! I need no parents! They were traitorous scum, vile, filth and vermin! They left me, their only daughter!"

Sarah Jane had retreated a step at this sudden outburst.

"What are your intentions towards this planet? Hostile? Peaceful?"

"My intentions are my own, Sarah Jane Smith," Cicely said with a voice like melting butter, previous anger forgotten.

"Yes, but my planet's safety is also a concern. Do you understand?"

Cicely turned away. "My nature is hostile. It drives me to hunt, kill, feed. But my split blood reminds me of the dangers of hunting humans on human territory. I rather like being alive, wouldn't you agree, Miss Smith?"

Cicely considered her for the longest time yet.

"I have no special love for humans," she said, "But I do not wish for prey that is rightfully mine to turn on me and hunt me. No, for the sake of my survival, and of my half-human blood, I will refrain from killing your kind, although," Cicely added, "You smell delicious. Very, very tasty. I'd take it as a compliment if I was you," she remarked, as Sarah Jane grasped at something out of sight.

"What will you do?"

The girl shrugged.

"Maybe I'll pass by one of those urban foxes that like to live around here. They don't taste as good, but it's better than nothing. That is, if you tell your...Mr Smith to let me out of this."

She pushed a hand against the unforgiving energy wall.

"I've never had something I couldn't break through before," she mused, half to herself.

Sarah Jane nodded absently. "Do you mind if I ran a few tests on you?"

The blonde girl hesitated for a thirty-third of a second and nodded.

"Very well. I should warn you though, afterwards, you should release me. If you try to keep me contained using your computer, or attack me in any way, I will have to kill you. But please, if we have a deal, continue."


	2. Chapter 2

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

Sarah Jane turned to Cicley.

"Mr Smith, can you identify the race of this girl?" the woman asked.

After a brief blue laser had scanned Cicely, the smooth voice replied, "Of course, Sarah Jane. The child is half human, and half belonging to an alien species not properly identified yet. She has also been infected with a rare strain of vampirism, the result of a bite from a vampire."

"What?!" Sarah Jane span to look at Cicely. "A vampire?"

Cicely yawned loudly and obviously. "Old news. Move on!"

Sarah Jane flipped over he watch.

"It can't be," she whispered. She turned to look at Cicely, evidently shocked.

"How old are you, Cicely?"

"Around eight," she answered, now examining the objects in the attic.

"And how long have you been eight years old?" she asked, sounding like someone had punched her in the stomach.

"Oh, about three hundred years ago, give or take a decade," she replied lightly, now tracing the symbol on her pocket watch that she had brought out.

"Correct. My examinations show that this vampire female is 280 years, 9 months, 30 days and 17 seconds old."

Cicely turned to Mr Smith in annoyance, pocketing her watch in a movement so fast, it was like it had merely disapeared.

"I'm a half-vampire you overrated piece of junk! Vampirism only affects humans - not my mother's species. Get your facts right!"

"Any special abilities that you have?" Sarah Jane asked quickly.

"Besides the obvious vampiric perks?" Cicely shrugged. "Telekinesis, telepathy, sometimes I see into the future or past or through space..." she let herself trail off.

"And your vampire nature?"

"I'm compelled to kill and feed on humans, but my other half and the 280 years does tend to weaken the instinct somewhat. I mostly scavenge - hunt foxes, rats...took down one of those grizzly bear things once. Tasted delicious..." she gazed into the distance, as if drawn to the memory, but just as Sarah Jane was about to call her, she came back.

"Anyway, I can survive without hunting humans, but it is always a temptation. Like for instance, you smell absolutely delicious! Almost like mango..."

She noticed the older woman's face and gave a jubilant laugh.

"Haven't I told you - I don't eat humans. I'm a vegetarian."

"How is eating foxes vegetarian?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Oh, sorry. It's just vegetarian for me. For a vampire. A little joke. Don't be afraid - I only eat really annoying humans."

Cicely grinned, showing perfectly white, even teeth, and laughed.

"Anyway, I thought we had a deal? Let me out please."

Sarah Jane hesitated.

"It would be far more dangerous not to," Cicely pointed out, still smiling.

"Mr Smith, release her," Sarah Jane said, reluctantly, and the blue cylinder of energy disappeared, and Cicely stepped out of it. She headed for the now-ruined door, but stopped and looked back.

"Who are you Sarah Jane?"

"I protect the world from aliens," Sarah Jane replied.

Suddenly, Cicely put both hands to her forehead, and gave a shuddering gasp, as if something had pained her.

"Cicely?" Sarah Jane asked, cautiously, and Cicely's knees buckled from underneath her, and she fell to the floor, eyes screwed shut, but otherwise perfectly still.

/Flashes of light, orange drinks, a huge tentacled creature staring from the rafters, a boy, so perfect and imperfect, and I, Cicely, was with them? It didn't seem possible - I watched as the other Cicely slapped Sarah Jane Smith a high five, accompanied by another girl with dark hair, denim jeans, a phone...dancing in a circle...happy...but it was all slipping away.../

Cicely stirred feebly, and Sarah Jane was bending over her.

"Hey, Cicely? Are you, okay?"

Cicely suddenly sat bolt upright, and almost scrambled away.

"It's alright," Sarah Jane said soothingly.

"I'm older than you. I don't need to be coddled," Cicely snarled, getting up. She nearly walked out of the attic, but stopped and looked around.

"I'm sorry," she said, surprising even herself. "I just...don't like other people to see me when I can't defend mysef. It makes me vulnerable. It makes me weak."

"What happened?" asked Sarah Jane.

"Flashes of the future is one of my perks from my alien side. Apparently, they could also alter timelines, but I'm afraid, that ability does tend to weaken when your father is a rabid dog of a human, and you've been bitten by a creature so fearsome and instinctive, nearly all of human history has documented it's raw savagery," Cicely finished, bitterly.

"Do you regret it? Being bitten by a vampire, I mean. And your father?"

Cicely turned to Sarah Jane.

"My father was born 300 years ago. He loved me more than life itself, or so he told me. He told me stories about my mother - how she was a beautiful red-skinned humanoid - descended from the last of her kind - scattered survivors of a war between the Time Lords and robot called the Daleks. However, it was the Dalek's that were responsible for my mother's death as they deemed their species to be too powerful to exist."

She saw Sarah Jane's face tighten, and noted it.

"Then, a vampire invaded our home. It paid no attention to my father, sleeping on the sofa, and headed upstairs to my room. He found me asleep. At that time, I was wielding strange powers on instinct. I saved my favourite teddy from being put in the dump by altering the timelines. I meddled and experimented, but thankfully, I was never punished by one of those strange Time guardians. But after the vampire had bitten me, I lost the power to change time forever. I was weaker, with less available to me, less resources and only a shadow of my former power. And if that wasn't enough, my father who loved me so much and so dearly -" Cicely snarled so viciously, Sarah Jane stumbled back a few steps, "- abandoned me on the steps of some old orphanage, and I never saw him again. Does that answer your question?"

Sarah Jane nodded. "Yes, it does. Thank you Cicely."

As Cicely turned away, Sarah Jane asked, "What did you see? Is it anything to do with me?"

Cicely nodded, distracted by a small golden bangle lying on the table with other artifacts.

"Yes, I saw quite a lot concerning you. Apparently, according to the vision, I'm going to be joining your little gang."

"What? Whose gang?" Sarah Jane demanded.

Surprised, Cicely said, "I saw a girl with dark curly hair and a boy in strange white clothes that were helping you. Something to do with a drink, and aliens with tentacles...it was unusually clear. As if it was definitely going to happen...are you sure you don't have a gang?"

Sarah Jane shook her head.

Cicely sat down on a wooden chair. "Interesting...very interesting..."


	3. Chapter 3

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

After the longest while, Cicely looked up.

"Can I join you?"

"What?"

"You heard me," Cicely said. "I want to stick close by. I've lived for nearly three centuries, and not had any exciting moments, no feeling of actually belonging, and I'd like to help out with aliens. I might find out what my other half is. My red-skinned humanoid cousins."

"Where will you stay though?"

"Here, of course. I'll stay here, help you out, and I won't go out until after dark to hunt. And I can survive on processed meat as well, though not for long."

"Look, Cicely, it's more complicated than that," Sarah Jane injected.

"All the children have to go to school, and people would ask questions if I suddenly announce that I had a kid staying with me. They'd think I abducted you or something."

"I'm not a child though!" Cicely exclaimed.

"But Cicely, we can't tell anyone that you're 280 years old! They wouldn't believe us! Besides, people hate vampires, so if they did find out, they'd...well...let's not get into that. Trust me, the best way to do it is to convince everyone that you're my adopted daughter or something!"

"And why can't you do that?" Cicely asked.

Sarah Jane seemed to falter for a second.

"Adopt you?"

"Yes. Why not?"

"...Because...I can't! I'm involved in all sorts of alien stuff, and besides, I work best on my own..."

"But you'll have a team in the future. Maybe it's time to break the habit."

But Sarah Jane shook her head.

"Any suggestions then? I sleep in an alleyways, or get driven mad by hunger and start to hunt your kind? I need a place to stay, Sarah Jane. You can see that."

Sarah Jane sighed, shoulders collapsing.

"Very well, I'll put a bed for you up here. I suspect you'll be safer here than in most places. Mr Smith always watches."

The vampire girl nodded. "Thank you. Oh, and by the way, if you start investigating drinks, please let me know."

At first, it was obvious that she thought Cicely was joking - but then she realised that she had come as close to absolute sincerity as she had ever done before.

Sarah Jane had brought up a mattress and duvet for Cicely, which she appreciated, but Immortals never truly slept, and Cicely had better things on her mind.

She sat there, in her star pyjamas facing Mr Smith who was still active.

"So, what are you, Mr Smith?"

"I am an alien," he replied again. "Hurled to earth by a comet, spewed out by a volcano, and given Sarah Jane Smith so I could aid humanity, and one day, perhaps, rescue the rest of my race."

Cicely nodded. "Any chance of simply telling me your name?"

Mr Smith considered. "No, I don't think I will. Don't pry into matters that aren't yours, she-vampire."

"That's Sarah Jane's business, isn't it? Prying into alien matters?"

"Miss Smith's business is her own," Mr Smith replied evenly. "Not other people's."

Cicely remembered the house across the road.

"Mr Smith, could I make use of your expertise in analysis?"

"Maybe," was the reply.

"Could you throw up images of all the residents in this road?"

"That seems harmless."

Suddenly, the screen was alight with faces, and a diagram, pointing out who lived where.

"If you're planning to use this to choose your snacks more wisely-"

"Didn't you listen to Sarah Jane?" Cicely snarled, the cute little girl image gone.

"By living amongst humans, I am denying my very nature, my instincts that tell me that a human is downstairs and I thirst for her blood. But because of my respect for human life, I stop myself, change my nature...what is it with humans that they take that for granted?" she demanded. "AND treat me worse for it as well?"

"I apologise. I am only fufilling my secondary objective - to safeguard the planet."

"And what's your primary?" Cicely asked, but Mr Smith only replied, "You ask far too many questions Miss Cicely."

The girl shrugged. "I know. I'm a kid at heart," and she laughed at her own joke.

"Anyway, these residents..." she mused, looking over the images.

"No, none of them are quite right..."

None of them matched the person Cicely saw in her vision. Suddenly, she pointed out a house that had no images attatched to it.

"Is this house empty?"

"At the moment, yes. It is being moved into tomorrow."

"Bring up an image of the new residents!" Cicely cried, sitting bolt upright.

First the father, and the mother, then a daughter popped up onscreen.

"Yes!" Cicely whispered to herself. That's her! That's the girl I saw in my vision! What do you know about her?"

"Her name is Maria Jackson. She is moving into 36 Bannerman Road tommorow, due to a break-up between her mother and father, Chrissie and Alan Jackson. She is 13 years old - no known alien connections."

"Just an ordinary girl..." Cicely murmured.

Suddenly, there was a soft thump from outside, but with Cicely's enhanced hearing, it sounded more like a bang. Immediately, she raced down the stairs, with only a whisper of a sound and flung open the door.

Cicely's mouth dropped.


	4. Chapter 4

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

A translucent, winged pink alien was standing - no, FLYING there - simply hovering. It was about twice the size of a regular human - four times the size of Cicely - and it's beautiful willowy thin frame was constantly moving, was if blown by the wind, and around it, it was singing with mysterious music, mesmerising cadences and wonderful scale patterns.

"I am Star Poet, child...I have lost my way home...this is where Sarah Jane lives?"

"Yes, it is. I'll go and fetch her," Cicely said, turning away.

It wasn't three seconds before Cicely had tracked Sarah Jane's scent to a room on the second floor, and was shaking her awake.

"Sarah Jane, Sarah Jane, get up!"

She sat up. "Cicely? What is it? It must be two in the morning!"

"There's a weird alien downstairs, calls itself a Star Poet, and it says that she has lost her way home. She called for you."

Sarah Jane sent Cicely down to the kitchen, whilst she got dressed.

Barely a minute had passed, and Sarah Jane was outside, looking at the Star Poet.

"I'm Sarah Jane Smith," she said, seemingly unafraid by the awe-inspiring creature.

"I am the Star Poet. I wish to return home, Sarah Jane, but I have no way of knowing where home is. Please help me, Miss Smith.

Sarah Jane nodded. "You are an Arcateeanian. So is your home on Arcateen V?"

"That is correct, Miss Smith."

Sarah Jane deliberated for a moment.

"Have you got a place on Earth that you can stay where no humans can see you?" Sarah Jane said.

The Star Poet nodded. "I have."

"At this time tomorrow, meet me here. I will have your directions for you."

The Star Poet nodded. "Very well, Miss Smith. Goodnight!"

And it twirled into the sky like some glamorous sky ballerina, and shot forwards, leaving the house in darkness.

Cicely could barely wait for the next day. She watched from five o'clock in the morning, and at seven, Sarah Jane came downstairs.

"Mr Smith told me about your theories last night," Sarah Jane said. "He seems to think that this new girl is going to be introduced to the world of aliens."

Cicely nodded. "Maria Jackson is going to get such a wake-up call."

"Mind telling me how you know this?"

"I saw it in my vision. Something about her and drinks, and aliens."

Sarah Jane didn't laugh.

"You are not to tell her, you hear me? Don't go outside until dark, and don't tell her a thing about aliens."

Cicely nodded - a picture of an obedient girl.

Then, suddenly - "It won't do any good you know."

"What?"

"Forbidding me not to tell her. It just means that she finds out on her own."

Sarah Jane left the room, leaving her to ponder.

"Cicely! I'll be going out for a bit! I'll be back at eight o'clock. Don't look out the window, and definitely no going outside!"

Cicely growled in annoyance. She was three times older than her! Shouldn't she give the orders around here? But she obliged...with one exception - she didn't stop looking out the window.

Half an hour later, a removal van turned up outside the house opposite 13 Bannerman Road.

Cicely watched as a man started unloading items and the teenager headed straight for the house - exactly the girl in her vision.

The mother was unloading items and eventually, the girl came out to help.

And, just at that moment, Sarah Jane Smith pulled into her driveway in her lime green car.

Maria seemed to forget about the box in her hand and went around the side of her removal van and craned her neck to have a look at her new neighbour.

She called out something to Sarah Jane, and I lip-read her.

"Hiya!"

Sarah Jane gave her a brief, wavering smile and bustled back into the house. Maria turned away, but gave a quick look back.

Call her, Cicely begged. Say hi. Start up a conversation.

But she didn't force her. It just meant that Maria had to find out on her own.

Eventually, Sarah Jane offered her strange house-guest two ham sandwiches and a slice of cucumber for lunch.

"That'ss bread. I remember it from before I was infected," Cicely said.

"And that is cucumber."

"Yes," Sarah Jane said. "Did you remember that from 300 years ago?" she asked in amazement.

She nodded. "Vampires can remember everything about their lives, unless their memories are forcibly removed, and that is very hard to do with us. I can remember everything - your number plate, make and model of your car, every word of every book I've ever read . . . I remember everything."

Cicely took a tiny bite out of the bread, and after sampling the ingredients for any traces of poisons or drugs, devoured it.

"It doesn't satisfy me like my normal diet does, but it's nice."

Sarah Jane nodded as Cicely took a bite of the cucumber. She especially savoured the ham, but she was thirsty, and would have to hunt soon.

After lunchtime, she asked Mr Smith about the other people the vampire girl had seen in her vision, but he could only find Maria. Downhearted, she waited eagerly for nightfall, when Sarah Jane promised the girl that she could hunt.

At midnight, Sarah Jane let her out, with the promise that she wouldn't hunt humans, and she'd be back by half past two to greet the Star Poet. After climbing up a tree to look out for unsuspecting prey, the vampire child noticed a fox, prowling outside one of the gates to the houses, and Cicely stretched herself out low against the limb of the branch and waited. When it came in range, she leapt with all fours and sprang out of the tree, pinned it to the floor with her hands, and sank her strong, white teeth into its neck, in an incredible display of ferocity, speed, and grace.

It died with a yelp, and Cicely hauled it back up to her tree to quench her thirst, and watch out for the Star Poet.

The hunt had taken about half an hour, and she had fed from the fox for about three-quarters of an hour, so Cicely simply sat and waited in the tree for the Star Poet to arrive.

It came with a dazzling light, a pinkish tinge to the sky. Immediately, she launched herself from tree to tree, hoping to get there . . .

Sarah Jane was already there, greeting the Star Poet, and giving it directions as she leapt down from her tree, and, conscious of the blood on her sleeve said nervously, "Hello."


	5. Chapter 5

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

It nodded to her, and Sarah Jane resumed talking with it, giving it directions. Suddenly, Cicely's sensitive ears picked up the sound of the gate creaking slightly, and before the intruder had seen her, she leapt back into the tree in one bound.

Then she saw her, kneeling by the hedge, her eyes on Sarah Jane and the Star Poet, eyes wide in wonder. Cicely debated jumping behind her and telling her not to worry, that she was not going mad, that she was seeing an alien, and it was her destiny to join with Sarah Jane and become a team...but she let it go and simply watched.

The Star Poet had given her something - a black handheld device, and Sarah Jane was smiling, enraptured. She held up the device, and Cicely saw that it had buttons on it that were glowing red. The Star Poet's singing was a chime of bells, the tinkle of a triangle, surely the voice of the angels, and now even Maria was smiling. But all too soon, the magic disappeared, and the Star Poet followed Sarah Jane's directions and shot upwards, and the light and the music had gone.

Maria wasn't smiling any more - she looked terrified, shocked, questioning . . . and she bolted back down the path, out of the gate, across the road and into her house.

Wait! Cicely wanted to call. You were supposed to demand what was going on, to be allowed into the group . . . surely that must happen!

But it didn't, and Maria disappeared, with her first introduction to the world of aliens.

Back inside, Cicely asked Sarah Jane, "What did the Star Poet give you?"

She showed her the device. "She told me that if I ever needed help with poetry, I could use it to call her."

Cicely paused for a eighth of a second, which was ages by her reckoning, and said slowly, "Are you still not sure about adopting me?"

Sarah Jane shook her head. "This is temporary. I can't have a little kid getting in my way. I'm better off on my own."

"Little kid?" demanded Cicely, growling slightly. "Little kid? At nearly three centuries old, I still haven't earned the right to be treated as an adult?"

Sarah Jane turned to go upstairs.

"Adult or not, my life is dangerous, and I work best alone."

And she went to bed.

The next morning, Cicely was interested to see that someone was walking down Maria's path, so she scrubbed the bloodstains off her T-shirt, and informed Sarah Jane, "I'm going out."

She received a reluctant reply in return, and she put on her shoes and walked out.

The girl had gone inside Maria's house, but a few minutes later, she was out again. After an embarrassing goodbye kiss from Maria, and a short conversation, they left and Cicely followed them at a safe distance. Sarah Jane saw Cicely as she posted a letter.

"Be careful," she murmured. She nodded.

"Hi! We just moved in opposite!" called Maria, waving at Sarah Jane. "I'm Maria Jackson!"

"Hello," Sarah Jane said briefly and walked back inside.

It looked as if she would have escaped if Alan had not jogged across the road to meet her.

"Hi! Hullo there! I'm Alan, Alan Jackson!" he offered his hand.

At first, Sarah Jane looked as if she'd take it, but she only said, "I hope you're not going to make too much noise. It's just, I work from home and I don't like to be disturbed."

"Okay, nice to be made welcome," Alan said, as Sarah Jane turned away.

"Sorry," Sarah Jane said, turning back, this time offering her hand to shake.

"Sarah Jane Smith."

They shook hands, and Alan seemed marginally more pleased as Cicely hung around the corner, trying to be inconspicuous.

"See you then!" Maria's friend said.

"Yeah, see you," Maria agreed.

"So where exactly are you going then?" asked Maria's father.

"The BubbleShock factory," Maria replied.

"A free bus!" her friend chipped in happily.

Sarah Jane looked worried.

"Anyway, I'm sure we'll get along just fine, it's just me and Maria now, making a new start of it, but with a divorce and that. Don't worry, it's fine, no shouting, and anyway, what sort of work do you do?"

But Sarah Jane didn't answer – she turned away and opened her car door.

"Really, really, well..." Alan sighed, and before Cicely lost them, she hurried towards Maria and her friend.

Cicely tailed Maria until we reached the bus stop, and she noticed Sarah Jane driving past.

It was impossible to remain unnoticed at such a small bus stop, so Cicely trusted in the fact that she was a little kid. Surely a little kid couldn't be that much of a problem.

Just as Maria began to take notice of her, the BubbleShock Bus came around the corner, and she forgot all about Cicely, which suited her fine.

The girls started giggling at the sight of it, and it wasn't hard to see why. It was completely orange, with images of bubbles on the side. Cicely jumped on board, but didn't take one of the bottles available to try at the front. She sat as close to Maria as possible.

"Hey, little girl, haven't you come from Banermann Road?" Maria asked, in a baby voice. She probably meant well, but Cicely was older than her, and she wasn't about going to take it.

"Little girl!" Cicely snorted, and she reached out with her telepathy and powered the images of her age and experience into her, also including her experience of the Star Poet, and pointing out the fact that she had been hiding in the tree the entire time.

The reaction was swift and violent.

Maria jerked, elbowing her friend in the ribs.

"Ow!" she exclaimed, nearly dropping the bottle of BubbleShock.

"Sorry, Kelsey!" Maria exclaimed, but after making sure that her friend was all right, turned to stare at Cicely, who shrugged.

Cicely saw Sarah Jane's car following the bus and grinned.


	6. Chapter 6

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

As they arrived at the BubbleShock factory, everyone gave a great cheer, and the bus entered a heavily guarded courtyard for the bus to park in and Cicely wondered.

The bus pulled up in the main area, and Cicely knew that Sarah Jane had got in behind her. Probably parked around the side. Everyone was getting restless, and Cicely too, was eager to be off.

"Alright, welcome to the BubbleShock experience!" a young man said, walking through the double doors.

"If you'd like to step through the archway, one by one..."

But Cicely had a bad feeling about that archway. She complied, but nervously, and Maria noticed.

"Hey, lit...I mean, girl. What's your name?"

"Cicely," she answered.

"Step through - it doesn't hurt," Maria said.

And reluctantly, Cicely did so, and Maria held her hand on the other side.

"Aren't you a little too young to be on your own?" Maria asked, but Cicely shook her head.

"I'm older than I look," she said.

But at the other side, the operator of the scanner stepped out in front of Cicely.

"Your readings came up as anomalous," he practically growled.

The man leading the tour suddenly seemed to appear out of nowhere.

"She came up with anomalous readings sir," the operator said, suddenly polite.

"Stop there!" he called to the group.

Maria's hand clenched on Cicely's.

"Right. Explain about the readings."

"Her birth date was unknown, so we cross referenced her DNA and characteristics with all known births and children, and we came up with a child by the name of Angel Mallory born a few hundred years ago. Her DNA isn't available, but the picture matches her exactly.

"And her other readings?"

"Abnormal. No heartbeat, skin temperature way below average, but beyond that, I can't say. Her skin must be abnormally tough to resist the scanner."

The man mused and then suddenly pulled her aside.

"Who are you? Who are your parents?"

Cicely buried her head in the crook of Maria's elbow sobbing noisily. The infection had long since prevented her from crying with tears, but she could still make a scene when she wanted. She wailed, and the man took a step forwards.

"Answer me!"

Cicely's finger touched Maria's hand gently.

/Quickly Maria. I am your sister, Cicely Jackson, and the machine must have malfunctioned./

Startled, Maria did as she was told.

"Stop scaring her!" she exclaimed, hugging Cicely. "She's my sister, Cicely Jackson!

The man backed off.

"Sorry little girl," the tour guide said with every hint of apology in his voice.

As they moved off, Cicely heard him say, "Keep an eye on the little one. I don't trust her. Research everything you can about the Jacksons, this Cicely, and Angel Mallory. You never know."

And the operator said, "Yes sir. Immediately."

Maria led her through another set of doors, and Cicely anxiously followed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls!" announced the young sandy-haired man.

"Welcome to BubbleShock."

And the children scampered down the stairs, as the man announced that the phones "must be switched off."

Of course, Cicely had no mobile phones, but everyone else was busy switching theirs off.

"What's a mobile phone going to do?" Maria asked, sceptical. "Make the bubbles go flat?"

Cicely was wondering the same thing.

"That's enough lip at the back," the sandy man said. "Just do it."

"Okay everyone, this is the main production area, and before we go any further, I'd like to offer you more free samples."

Cicely released Maria's hand and pretended to get involved in the excitement, but only taking the one bottle, whilst the man spouted slogans about the genius of BubbleShock.

But Cicely had no intention of drinking hers. She was only going to use it as a sample for Sarah Jane to test.

"Oi," the man said, pointing.

For one heart stopping moment, Cicely thought he was pointing at her, but as Maria walked forwards, she relaxed.

"Want a BubbleShock?" he asked, in a voice that made Cicely want to take the contents of the crate and pour it over his head.

"No thanks. I'm one of the 2% with the wrong taste buds," grinned Maria. The man grinned as well, but evilly.

"Don't worry," he said, picking up a bottle and viewing it, as if it was the answer to life itself.

"We're working on it. Soon we'll have everyone drinking BubbleShock."

He tossed the bottle to Maria, who caught it rather awkwardly.

"The whole world," he murmured, almost to himself.

Cicely immediately resolved never to drink even a thimble of the drink ever again.

"I'd rather have a cup of tea," Maria replied sweetly, but rebelliously. She let the bottle drop into the crate, and stared right back into his malevolent eyes.

The rest of the tour was as boring and brainwashing as the sandy-haired man's propaganda. It was bound to be a load of lies anyway. Cicely had long ago decided that the whole BubbleShock drink was sinister, and sinister things often were concealed with lies. Obviously, Kelsey was as bored with the tour as Cicely, but for different reasons.

"Listen, we'll be done in 20 minutes. I'll go and phone Mum - she can meet us at WHSmith."

"You're not supposed to use your phone," Maria said.

"And what are you? A girl guide?" retorted Kelsey.

"They'll take it off you," Maria warned.

"Well they're not gonna see are they?" fired up Kelsey, and with a few more mutters, she walked off.

Suddenly, a vision of such power came to Cicely's mind - an older woman speaking to someone else over an earpiece.

"Leslie," she said, with an awful finality. "Kill her."

And a tall, willowy dark haired black woman touched her earpiece. In front of her stood Sarah Jane Smith.

"No!" Cicely gasped as the BubbleShock factory swam into focus, and she found herself being supported by Maria, with everyone looking at her.

Acting quickly, she pretended to hiss to Maria, "Man United beat Everton? Sam will be devastated!"

As Cicely had hoped, everyone tired quickly of the eight-year old girl so interested in football. Everyone but Maria.

"What was that all about?" she asked, once everyone had stopped staring.

"Nothing," Cicely hissed back.

But it wasn't nothing.

Sarah Jane Smith was in serious danger.


	7. Chapter 7

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

Cicely managed to convince herself that Sarah Jane was fine, that nothing was going to happen to her, that she could deal with it...when an alarm went off. The guide bustled everyone out towards the exits and hissed to a worker, "Get them out! Get everyone out!"

Then I heard a scream, a scream that I knew so well.

Cicely looked at Maria.

"That's Kelsey!"

So maybe it wasn't Sarah Jane who had set the alarms off, but Kelsey was still in danger.

Maria turned and ran back the other way, me hot on her heels. Within a second, Cicely had blurred up alongside Maria. She could track Kelsey's scent like a bloodhound, and lost no time in pulling Maria towards her, avoiding workers wherever possible.

At one point, Cicely yanked Maria behind a crate to hide her from the workers.

"Listen to me, Maria. I'll explain everything later, but you've got to trust me. Don't think of me as a child. Think of me as a older woman in a kid's body and clothes."

"I've got to call Kelsey," gasped Maria, but no sooner as she had turned on her phone and pressed the CALL button, when an alarm sounded for a second time.

"Okay, don't try that again," Cicely advised, yanking her away from the container and moving on again, running.

But she stumbled as she caught a picture of a boy, with an oxygen mask over his face, sparks flying everywhere, the boy destined to join our team...

No! Cicely grimly forced herself into the present,

But a few more twists and turns later, she caught the scent of a boy, and then, nearly ran into him.

"Oh, hello. We're here to help. I'll give you the details later, but we've got to get out of here, understand?"

The boy nodded, and we heard voices around the corner, and the boy ran off.

"Come on!" Cicely called to Maria.

As we ran, Maria gasped, "Do you know him?"

Cicely short of shrugged. "Sort of. Bit complicated to explain, along with the whole, who are you question," Cicely added, seeing Maria's mouth open again, and added, perfectly factually, "You humans have limited breath and energy, so you'd better save it for running."

Eventually, Maria caught up with the boy, and they ran together.

"Stop!" Cicely called, and yanked both Maria and the boy behind a pillar as a team in orange overalls marched past. None of them dared to breathe until they had been passed.

Maria pointed at the orange door opposite us.

"We can hide there!"

Cicely hesitated for a seventeenth of a second and nodded. We dashed across.

"We'll be safe in here for a bit. Men never go to the Ladies."

The boy looked confused.

"Why do men never go to the Ladies?" he asked.

His ignorance seemed unreal to Cicely, and she reached up, placing both hand on his temples, and probed him.

"Oh my," she murmured, pulling away.

"What?" Maria asked.

"This boy was created by the BubbleShock people. He knows barely anything about the world, but his memory, intelligence and raw brain power is completely off the charts . . ." Cicely trailed off, shaking head in wonder.

They barricaded themselves inside a cubicle, and almost instantly, she caught the scent of Sarah Jane, and another moment later, she opened the cubicle, almost recoiling in shock. "Hello Sarah Jane," Cicely said calmly. "So when do I get to tell you...uhh...told you so?"

"Maybe when we're no longer being hunted by Mrs Wormwood?" she said.

"Ah, so that's her name. Charming woman. Didn't she order Leslie to kill you?"

Sarah Jane stared at me. "How do you know that?"

"Later. This is Maria Jackson, and a nameless boy, somehow created by the BubbleShock weirdoes. Everyone, this is Sarah Jane."

Cicely sat back on the toilet lid, satisfied.

"What is going on here?" Maria demanded.

"I'll explain it back at home. Cicely? Can you keep a watch? If you smell anyone coming, or hear Mrs Wormwood at all, tell me."

"Smell her?" Maria asked.

"I'm a 280 year old Immortal child," Cicely said with a grin. "What you might know as a vampire. Don't worry, I'm a vegetarian."

Cicely cackled, and concentrated.

"Wait! She's right outside! She can smell us in here! She's demanded why they haven't searched in here."


	8. Chapter 8

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

Cicely bolted out of the cubicle and, with a wrench; she pulled the window open, and said, "Hurry! Get through here!"

Sarah Jane and gestured to Maria, who pulled herself through with a little effort. Second to go was Cicely - Sarah Jane insisted on it. Third, Sarah Jane herself wriggled through, and Cicely slammed the window shut.

The window led to the car park, and in an instant, Cicely had blurred over to the car and had unlocked it.

"Kelsey is in there! I can't just leave her!" Maria exclaimed.

"Maria, Kelsey won't be killed, but if you stroll back in there after you've been with the boy, they WILL kill you. Now get in the car." Cicely told her.

Sarah Jane had pulled out or lipstick and had pointed it at the rapidly closing gate.

With a zap, the end of the lipstick lit up, and the gates ground to a halt, and with another zap, began moving open again.

"What's that thing?" Maria demanded.

"Sonic lipstick," Sarah Jane answered. "Now get in."

"She's here!" Cicely exclaimed, "and she's furious!"

Reluctantly, Maria got in the car, with me in the front seat, and Maria helping the boy.

Sarah Jane swung the car around and sped off, but Cicely heard the man say, "Retrieve the archetype!" before the car sped out of the gates.

They arrived home and Maria was full of questions.

"Who is he? What was he doing in that factory? Why were you even there, and Cicely...what is she and how does he know everything?"

"Just leave it," Sarah Jane cut her off. "All of it. I can handle things from now on," she grabbed Cicely's wrist and started pulling both her and the boy into the house.

"But there's something going on."

"Sarah Jane, stop!" Cicely said, and she rotated her wrist.

"I told you that this would happen. I told you that Maria and another boy would join our team. I also told you that it was unavoidable. Don't you see that Maria has to know what it going on?"

"I saw you last night," Maria said thunderously, and Sarah Jane faltered and stopped.

"What did you say?" she asked, turning around.

"She said she saw you last night," the boy chipped in.

"That thing in your garden. That alien."

Sarah Jane walked towards her.

"Now listen to me Maria. My life is dangerous. And rule one is never to put anyone else in danger, especially not a kid."

"Cicely's a kid! The boy is a kid!"

"Maria, just go back home," Sarah Jane told her. "You watch telly, you do whatever it is that you o, you just live your life a normal, you forget any of this happened. Have you it that? You stay away from me and Cicely, for your own sake," Sarah Jane told her, with awful finality.

And she took me by the arm and the boy in the other arm, and led us both inside.

Cicely walked into the living room, and glared at Sarah Jane.

"Haven't you thought about the fact that maybe Maria is in danger too?" Cicely demanded.

"I saw it - Mrs Wormwood wants you dead more than the rest of us, but she's not exactly respectful of human life. If she thinks that Maria has seen too much of her precious factory, she'll abduct or kill her, and probably both."

"No," Sarah Jane said. "She'll be in more danger with me - Cicely? Cicely!"

Cicely had collapsed once again to the floor.

/"We need to find her," Mrs Wormwood said, looking at a screen with a diagram of Sarah Jane on it.

"She lives on Bannermann Road," Kelsey said arrogantly.

"What did you say?" Mrs Wormwood said, turning to her.

"Ban...ur...man Road, and she's as loony as you lot," Kelsie retorted in classic teenager style.

There was a flicker, as if the picture was distorted, but then, Mrs Wormwood said to Kelsie.

"I'm going to turn off my image translator. Try not to scream."

Kelsie made a noise of disbelief. "I never scream," she sniffed.

But as the picture blacked out, Cicely heard Kelsey's terrified screams, and they jerked her into reality./

Sarah Jane was shaking her awake.

"She's coming," Cicely whispered. "She knows and she's coming." "We know," she said, looking at them. "He was watching you in the garden. Get inside."

She turned to Sarah Jane, who was looking horror stricken.

"It's not Mrs Wormwood, it's the man. I can smell him. He's turned off his image translator, and he's here to kill us."

"What?" Kelsey said. "What garbage are you on about?"

Cicely whipped around, and snarled, a loud, feral noise, that ripped through the house.

"Get yourselves to safety."

Then the boy from the factory appeared behind Sarah Jane.

"Hello Maria! Hello vampire girl! Hello screaming girl!"

And suddenly, there was a pounding on the door. Sarah Jane braced herself against it.

"It's him!" Cicely whispered, horrified.

"Never mind hello, we've got a great big alien out there!" Maria yelled at the boy.


	9. Chapter 9

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

"Get upstairs!" Sarah Jane yelled, and Cicely grabbed the boy and dragged him upstairs.

There was a creak and a sucking sound, and the door was ripped off it's hinges and a great big green alien came in. Cicely abandoned the boy and blurred back downstairs, lifting Sarah Jane clean off her feet, she ran upstairs twice as fast.

But the alien would not be denied. Instead of clinging to the roof, it dropped down onto the stairs and started climbing.

"Okay Cicely, put me down," Sarah Jane ordered, and she obeyed, and darted into the attic.

"Wait here!" Sarah Jane told everyone. "Ten seconds, I'll be ten seconds!"

Cicely wasn't sure whether they had ten seconds.

"This is not happening! This is so not happening!" Kelsey gasped holding the boy like a shield.

"That contradicts the facts," the boy said, and Cicely sank into her hunting crouch, bared her white teeth and growled.

When she had growled before, it had been a warning, or perhaps out of playfulness, but this time, the feral sound was like a chainsaw, ripping through the air, low and vicious not a warning, but a promise.

The monster did not halt, and Cicely, with a roar, launched forwards, and grasped a tentacle. With a soggy wet snap, the tentacle was snapped clean off, and then, Sarah Jane emerged from the attic room.

"Cicely, MOVE!" Sarah Jane roared as she emerged, holding a very elaborate spray, and as soon a Cicely had leaped clear, she had pushed her hand down on the spray button and had sprayed the creature.

Amazingly, it not only made it retreat, but it had now got knocked down a flight of steps and was now on its back, its image flickering slightly, until it had transformed into the man from the tour.

His eyes widened, hair soaked, and seemed to sink downstairs, leaving some sort of black goo.

"I'm glad I didn't try to bite that," Cicely said, looking disgusted. As Sarah Jane bent down to examine it, so did Maria.

"Maria, don't get involved," Sarah Jane said sharply.

"I think it's little to late for that," she said, staring at the goo, and then looking back at her.

"Thank you. You saved our lives."

"Oh my flipping heck," Kelsey exclaimed from the attic.

"No! Don't go up there!" Sarah Jane yelled, scrambling to her feet.

But of course, everyone followed Kelsey.

"Who said you could come up here? Don't touch anything!"

Everyone was walking around examining the trinkets and machinery in the attic.

"These things...are they alien?" asked Maria.

"Where did you get them?"

"I suppose you've seen too much, and it isn't as if anyone's going to believe you..."

She sat down on the step, and Maria joined her.

"Aliens are falling to Earth all the time, not just those ones you hear on the news. Some have got lost, like the one you saw me sending home last night. Some of them crash land, and some of them want to invade."

Maria was silent for a few seconds.

"You still believe me?" Sarah Jane said.

Maria nodded, dumbstruck, but managed a "yes".

"How come?" Sarah Jane asked.

"Because you're bonkers, but I don't think you're a liar," Maria said.

"Oh, well, that's nice to know," she said. "Well, not about the bonkers bit."

"This place is beautiful," the boy said.

"Thank you," Sarah Jane smilied.

"Not so bad yourself, fella," Kelsey said, peering through a magnifying glass at the boy.

"What does that mean?" he asked.

"He's mine," Kelsey grinned.

"Is that good or bad," he asked, and Maria replied, "That's bad, that's very bad."

Then she turned back to Sarah Jane.

"It's just you then? On your own? Or is it with Cicely?"

She stood up.

"Cicely turned up the night before you did. I've still got things to work out about her. But the government know all about aliens, and then their are secret organisations dedicated to finding them, but they tend to go in all guns blazing and I just think their is a better way."

She picked up an object, examined it, and set it down again.

"How did you get started?" Maria asked, intrigued.

"I met this man, a very special man, called the Doctor. And years ago, we travelled together."

"Through space," Maria said, slightly dreamily.

"Through space and time . . . and then it came to an end."

She walked over to a bookshelf and put the object inside it.

"And suddenly, I was back to a normal life, with electricity bills . . . burst pipes . . . tickets . . . and then . . ."

"She's completely looped the loop," Kelsey chipped in, sitting in a rocking chair by the window.

"There, you see?" Sarah Jane said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Who can I talk to about it? For years, I tried to forget! And then I met him again - the Doctor - and we'd both changed. But it was funny because we were still both the same. And I learned that I cold carry on here on Earth, doing what we always did. And that's when I started this. I began my life again."

"And at the BubbleShock factory, it's run by aliens?"

"Okay, everyone's an alien here - you, me the Pope, James Blunt, no, I can actually believe that one . . ."

"For the record, I'd like to point out that I'm half-alien," Cicely chipped in, glaring at Kelsey.

"But Kelsey, you saw the alien!" Maria exclaimed, gesturing.

"I saw a guy in a suit, that's all, like in the films, it's pretend?"

There was a rapid beeping noise and Sarah Jane's head came up and she raced across to her safe set into the wall, and twiddled the dials.

Even Cicely's mouth dropped open - inside was a safe full of space.

"Their was a scientific project in Switzerland, that created a black hole. If it gets free, Earth could be swallowed up. You see, K-9 is sealing it off."

And a mechanical voice issued from a dog-shaped robot, "Greetings mistress!"

"K-9?" Maria asked in disbelief.

"He's my friend," Sarah Jane said.

"K-9? As in canine?" Kelsey snorted in disbelief. "That's so lame."

"He's been in there for a year and a half now, plugging the distortion. And every so often, he passes my way."

"Your best friend is a metal dog, stuck in a black hole?" chortled Kelsey in disbelief.

"I know," Sarah Jane said lightly.

"How are you K-9?" she asked, more affection in her voice than Cicely had ever heard before.

"How do you feel?"

"Misunderstanding of the function of this unit mistress. I do not feel."

But despite his cold, robotic words, I could understand why Sarah Jane liked K-9. The tone of his voice was almost comforting and protecting.

"However, all circuits are functioning at full capacity."

"Can you ever come out K-9?" Maria asked, fascinated.

"Oh, K-9, this is Maria," Sarah Jane introduced.

"Greetings young Mistress," he chirped. "I cannot emerge until this breach is sealed."

"And how long will that take?" asked Maria.

"I cannot estimate the duration of this task," it replied.

"You see? A bunch of knuts and bolts."

"The small female is hostile!" K-9 stated.

"Don't listen to her," Maria sighed, rolling her eyes.

"I regret I must transfer my co-ordinates Mistress."

"Bye-bye K-9. Good dog!" Sarah Jane called to him.

"Affection noted Mistress," K-9 said, turning.

Sarah Jane smiled and closed the safe door and pulled the fake cabinet panelling over it.

"How long was he gone for?" Maria asked.

"I don't know," Sarah Jane said, and then even quieter, she said, "but I miss him."

There was a giggle, so out of place that it took Cicely a moment to realise that it was Kelsey.

"Don't laugh Kelsey Hooper!" Sarah Jane said indignantly. "He was my dog! My daft metal dog. And now, I'm on my own."

She settled into a chair, but instead sank into it as if the life had gone out of her, lonely and vulnerable.


	10. Chapter 10

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

"What's this then?" asked Maria, picking up the handheld device that the Star Poet had given Sarah Jane.

"Some sort of communicator I think. From the person you saw last night. She said if I ever needed help, I could use it to call her."

"Then let's call her!" Maria exclaimed.

"She meant with poetry," Sarah Jane said with a smile.

"She is a Star Poet of Arcanteen V," Sarah Jane added.

"You wouldn't want to call him for anything else or it'd be trouble."

"Let me see," a quiet voice came from behind Cicely, and Sarah Jane looked at the boy and carefully, Maria handed over the communicator.

As he examined the device, Sarah Jane looked at him with something like wonder in her face.

"Look at him. He knows nothing about the world; everything's new to him. I think he's some sort of experiment."

"Mrs Wormwood knows him as the Archetype," Cicely said. "To her, this boy is everything."

"The Archetype?" mused Sarah Jane. Then, suddenly, she snatched up the communicator from the boy, and told him, "I don't like other people going through my things."

"What about you Cicely? You told me loads of...well...alien things. Are you alien as well?"

"Half-alien," Cicely answered in a clear, high voice. "My father was a human, but my mother was a humanoid alien, probably extinct by now. Then at about eight years old, I was bitten and infected with a rare disease - vampirism. So, now, after almost three centauries old, I am stuck in the body I had at eight...but with a few perks of course."

Maria gaped at me.

"You're really a vampire? Are you safe?"

Cicely snorted. "I'm a bloodsucking hunter of humans, and my kind is feared throughout the whole of the Earth and beyond - of course I'm not safe. But my split blood restrains me, and almost 300 years has been enough time for me to come to grips with...a vegetarian diet."

She laughed at her own joke.

"Vegetarian?" Maria asked of Sarah Jane. "Is she serious? A vegetarian vampire?"

"She means that she doesn't eat humans, only animals. She went hunting last night and caught a fox, just before you showed up. She is telepathic, and according to her, can wield telekinesis, and occasionally has visions of the future."

"Wow," Maria said, staring at me. "I bet no one ever suspects you."

Cicely grinned, revealing slightly pointed canines.

"No. My vampiric traits only really show up at night. Before then, everyone's offering me lollypops and calling me darling sweetums."

She laughed again.

"That's enough, Cicely," Sarah Jane said mildly. "You're scaring Maria."

"I'm a scary girl, Sarah Jane," Cicely replied, still smiling. "It's my nature. Surely I'm allowed to keep that side of it instead of being a horrible man-eater?"

"It's alright, Sarah Jane," Maria injected as Sarah Jane opened her mouth. "I can handle it."

"So, I'm not a horrible scary monster to you?" Cicely asked head tilted on one side, suddenly looking cute and innocent.

"Horrible? No. You saved my life by attacking that alien. But scary? . . . yes, I do find you creepy."

Cicely grinned in satisfaction. "Oh good."

"That device on your wrist," the boy said quietly, "It detects alien life?"

"That's right," Sarah Jane said.

"Then what is detecting now?" he asked, and the device was indeed flashing.

"You're right!" Sarah Jane said, astonished, and flipped up the false front, and looked at it.

"There might be another one of those things out there!" Maria exclaimed.

"No," Sarah Jane said, peering at it.

"It's picking up Cicely - her half-alien heritage. And...that bottle you're holding, as well as the bottle Kelsey has!"

She took the bottle of BubbleShock from Cicely and scanned it.

"It's that ingredient - the Bane," she said, sounding astonished.

"Yeah, well, it's organic," Kelsey said, in a 'duh' tone of voice.

"No, more than that, it's alive! It's not just an ingredient. It's an alien. It's the secretion of...I need my glasses...the Bane Mother," she read. "It's a piece of the living Bane," she wondered. "It's inside every bottle of BubbleShock."

Suddenly, Cicely was very glad she had promised herself not to drink it.

"I've been drinking that stuff and its alien?" Kelsie demanded.

"Thought you didn't believe in aliens," Maria smiled smugly.

"Oh, you can shut up," Kelsie retorted. "You don't have to worry about a space creature living in your stomach. What are you going to do about it?" she turned angrily on Sarah Jane.

"It's not my fault!" Sarah Jane said defensively.

"Yeah? You've got all this stuff, all these gadgets, and you sit here yapping on all day, talking about planets and monsters, and -"

Kelsie broke off as Cicely snarled, low, and soft. The sound vibrated through the attic, soft and sinister.

She gulped and added, "Just keep her away from me."

"No, Cicely, leave it be. I'll show her how serious I am."

Sarah Jane turned on Kelsie, and said in a voice, almost as threatening as Cicely's snarl,

"Alright Kelsie. Just you watch."

She turned, facing the chimneystack.

"Mr Smith?" she said, raising her head up.

"Yes Sarah Jane," a smooth male voice replied.

"I need you," Sarah Jane ordered, and the chimneystack lifted up, and a keyboard pushed out from the stack, revealing a computer that Cicely a seen only once before.

"No way," Maria said in a hushed voice.

"An alien computer?" asked Kelsie, standing up in amazement.

"Mr Smith, I want a direct visual link with Mrs Wormwood at the Bane factory," Sarah Jane commanded. "Can you get coordinates?"

"Accessing," Mr Smith said.

"What, so you can just phone her up?" Maria asked, dumbfounded.

"Mr Smith can hack into anything," Sarah Jane smiled proudly flicking a few switches.

"Why do you want to talk to them?" asked Maria in disbelief.

"Good point," Cicely said. She turned to Sarah Jane. "I don't know whether you're aware of it, but I saw her ordering you to be killed by her secretary. And she even pulled up a diagram of you. She's fixated on killing you!"

"I'm well aware of that," Sarah Jane said. "But I want to be fair."

She flicked a few buttons, as Mr Smith recounted a series of numbers.

Cicely could feel her vampire mind storing the information as easily as a normal human remembering a word for a single second.

"That acts like a phone number," Sarah Jane said.

"Connecting," Mr Smith answered smoothly.

"Mrs Wormwood," Sarah Jane called, as soon as the screen had cleared.

"Oh very clever," the woman from my vision said, dressed in black leather.

"Thanks for the assassination attempt," Sarah Jane said, sarcastically.

"My pleasure," Mrs Wormwood said. "The next one will be harmful."

"I know who you are and what you are," Sarah Jane said, in a voice of razor steel. "Bane. Now leave this planet."

"Are you declaring war?" demanded the woman.

"Mrs Wormwood, the Universe is huge and the Earth is so small. You don't need to do this. I'm asking you, as one species to another, just leave this world. Leave us in peace. Please."

"And if I don't?" Mrs Wormwood asked, challenging.

"Then...I'll have to do something," Sarah Jane stated.

"Very well," came the retort and Mrs Wormwood appeared to deliberate. "In the language of your young ones, bring it on."

And she terminated the connection.

"That...didn't go well," Sarah Jane grimaced, sinking into a chair.

"So how are we going to stop them?" asked Maria.

"You tell me," Sarah Jane shrugged.

"What?! So you don't have a plan? Nothing?"

"Nope," Sarah Jane faced her. "The people I fight have plans and weapons, but I don't. It's what makes me different."

Suddenly, Cicely's knees buckled, and she fell onto all fours, shaking uncontrollably, and Maria ran to her side.

"Cicely!" she exclaimed.

But all Cicely could see and hear was Mrs Wormwood's cackle and her voice calling, "Convert those with Bane, and they will convert the rest! Open your mind mother! Let this become BANE WORLD!"

And in a millionth of a second, Cicely had leaped backwards against the attic wall, hands pressed against it, as if trying to sink into the wall, stared at Sarah Jane, and whispered, "It's started. She's begun."

Immediately, Kelsie was half-slumped over the sofa, saying, "Help me!"

"No! Get back!" screamed Cicely, and she saw the BubbleShock bottle in her hand.

"Get away from Kelsey and whatever happens, don't drink any of that BubbleShock!"

Then Kelsey's head was enveloped with a strange orange glow and she recovered suddenly, holding out the bottle and saying slowly, "Drink it."

"The Bane's taken her over!" Maria exclaimed.

"Quickly! Out!" Sarah Jane ordered, and, grabbing the boy's hand and Maria's Cicely pulled them both outside.

"I'm going to the factory," Sarah Jane said.

"I'm coming with you," both Maria and Cicely exclaimed at once.

"No! No, you two must stay here!"

Maria rolled her eyes in exasperation, and then caught sight of Alan.

"Dad! Get inside, it's not safe -!"

But she was cut short as Alan walked towards her; using the same slow voice that Kelsey had done, "Drink it."

"Dad!" yelled Maria in real fear. "No, Dad!

"Time to go," Cicely said, blurring across to Maria and dragging her towards the car. Maria fought her, but she was no match for her vampire strength.

"We need to go. Now!" Cicely yelled, and within a ninetieth of a second of locking Maria in, had blurred around to the other car door and was sitting down there, slamming the passenger seat door.

"Go!" Cicely yelled, and Sarah Jane pulled out, with Maria still repeating, "What are we going to do?"

Sarah Jane looked at her in the wing mirror.

"Maria, there are two types of people in this world, the ones who panic, and then there's us. Got it?"

"Got it," Maria nodded, jaw clamped shut.

Sarah Jane swerved around the people in the road and sped off.


	11. Chapter 11

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

They reached the factory and Sarah Jane bit the top of the sonic lipstick and pointed it at the gates. They opened to admit them just in time. They parked up, and Sarah Jane opened the door, saying, "I'm going in. Stay here."

But both Maria and Cicely had no intention of waiting at the car - they watched as Sarah Jane flashed her lipstick a second time and the gate closed, trapping the possessed outside.

But as she tried to get the lipstick to work on the door to the factory, they were disappointed.

"They've put on a deadlock seal," realised Sarah Jane, as she pocketed the lipstick.

"What does that mean?" asked Maria.

"It means we can't get in," she answered.

Behind them, the boy called, "Sarah Jane!"

They turned to see the gate behind them close.

"We can't go back and we can't get in - what are we going to do?" Maria demanded.

"There has got to be a way of getting in, there just has to be! There's got to be something..." she looked down at her sonic lipstick.

"What do I do? Come on Doctor, help me!"

She started muttering to herself, and then she caught sight of something.

"Yes!" she whispered to herself.

With a roar, the BubbleShock bus had ploughed through the wall of the factory. And with a last dying mechanical voice, it wheezed, "Drink...Bubble...Shock..."

"I hope I'm not too late for the party," Sarah Jane called from inside the driver's cab.

"Miss Smith," Mrs Wormwood hissed.

Once the door was free of debris, Sarah Jane opened it and stepped out, along with Maria and Cicely.

"And Co.," Cicely chipped in. "So this is the infamous Mrs Wormwood we all know and detest?"

"You brought the un-child with you. I knew we should have quarantined you. No heartbeat, cold skin, half alien...oh, dear, I'm afraid they're probably extinct. And then there is your little disease. Vampirism."

She sighed. "Such a fascinating creature, but death...I wonder, Cicely," she asked, tilting her head, "How do you live with yourself? Your whole life is death - even you are dead in a manner of speaking. I should have ordered your execution when we first scanned you. Lucky I didn't input you into the Archetype. . .Angel Mallory."

Cicely snarled at her in fury. In an instant, Cicely had flown across the room, and when everyone's vision cleared, Cicely had pinned Mrs Wormwood by the throat on the opposite side of the room.

"You know nothing of me, Bane," Cicely snarled, in a voice that was so terrifying, most people in the room looked away in fear, including Maria. Cicely released her, and in an eye blink she was back beside Sarah Jane, and Maria was inching away from her.

"Angel Mallory is dead," she growled. "She died almost three hundred years ago. She is of no interest to you any more." She looked venomously at her.

"Cicely on the other hand might just have to tear your head clean off before the day is out."

There was no hint of any exaggeration in Cicely's voice.

"I warned you," Sarah Jane declared, watching Mrs Wormwood's cool appraisal of Cicely.

"Leave this planet."

"Have you met my mother?" Mrs Wormwood asked, brushing her leather suit off from bits of brick and dust where Cicely had rammed her against it, and with the other, pointing a finger at the ceiling.

Up in the rafters was a green, tentacled alien that Cicely had seen only once before, with a huge eye and a huge body.

It lunged slightly towards Sarah Jane, but Maria darted in front of her.

"Leave her alone!" she yelled.

"Maria, don't ever do that again!" Sarah Jane exclaimed.

The boy climbed down from the bus, and Mrs Wormwood sighed in relief.

"Oh, and she's brought us the Archetype," Mrs Wormwood said, eyes narrowing.

"He is a living thinking human being," Sarah Jane said furiously. "And you created him. What's he for, anyway?"

"He's an assembly," Mrs Wormwood declared, "Of thousands of different humans. A montage you might say. A collage. On every tour of the factory, we scan the guests, all ten thousand of them. We fed every strength and every weakness into him. The Archetype."

The boy said nervously, "I am everyone."

Mrs Wormwood nodded, a smug look on her face.

"But why?" Maria asked.

"For the other 2% who wouldn't touch Bane," Mrs Wormwood stated. "But since we've advanced our plans, he, is no longer needed."

And, with a cruel twist of her ring, the boy collapsed onto the floor.

"No!" yelled Maria, going to his side.

"He's only a boy!" Sarah Jane pleaded. "I'm begging you - let him go!"

"Oh that's so sweet," Mrs Wormwood simpered as Maria covered him with some sort of black material.

"But he's dying!" Maria gasped.

"And soon, you will join him," Mrs Wormwood said, satisfied.

"Like all our enemies. Our slave control is activated around the world. The time of Man is over. The time of Bane is come!"

Cicely looked at Sarah Jane.

"Please, let me rip her throat out. It'll be quick and humane."

"No," Sarah Jane said. "That's not how I work. I do not kill."

Cicely turned to her.

"If it's a choice between us or them, I pick us. Your concessions of mercy are going to get you killed."

Sarah Jane didn't reply.

"You failed, Miss Smith. This is where your lonely life is ending."

"Then she's not on her own!" Maria said defiantly and she whispered to Sarah Jane, "She's got me."

Cicely nodded in agreement.

"And I've got this," she breathed, carefully taking out her mobile phone.

And she dialled a number and held it up to the roof, and the Bane mother retracted slightly.

"The device is tiny," Mrs Wormwood said, turning away. "And you have angered the Bane mother. Do you really think that is wise?"

The Bane was descending from the ceiling now, letting itself down on great tentacles.

It picked up a steel rafter and swung it, but Cicely concentrated hard on it, and the rafter stopped in mid-air, no matter how hard the Bane mother swung it.

"Interesting," Mrs Wormwood mused. "The . . . girl has impressive powers."

Cicely tried to block her out, but her concentration slipped and she ducked as the Bane mother swung it and it cluttered across the floor. She cursed in a low, guttural language, rolling away from the Bane.

"Should have practiced with it," she muttered.

"Mother, descend and consume them!" Mrs Wormwood announced, pointing at the group huddled by the bus.

"But I've got this," the boy said, holding up the Star Poet's communicator.

"What is that?" snapped Mrs Wormwood.

"Its a signal device. It's a device from another world. Like a mobile phone but stronger."

Cicely went over to him, fuelling him with bravery, courage and encouragement.

"It can call across the stars. It must be a million times more powerful than a mobile phone."

"Then it's a good thing that you don't know our frequency," Mrs Wormwood said, obviously relieved.

"Mr Smith said it out loud," the boy said, remembering.

"But that was ages ago!" Sarah Jane exclaimed.

"But we can remember," Cicely said, reviewing the number.

"You gave me the memory of ten thousand humans, the boy said, and started inputting numbers, chanting in sync with Cicely.

"No! Stop them! Mrs Wormwood yelled in desperation.

"013457689014658757562987032105-5." The chorus of Cicely and the boy's chant was powerful, each digit making Mrs Wormwood's face grow paler in fear.

And he stood up, thrusting the device in the air with one hand and Cicely holding his other hand, and throwing the other upwards in triumph and both of them shouted, "Calling the Bane!"

And the Bane mother recoiled sharply, and even Mrs Wormwood clapped her hands over her ears and shrieked "No!"

"The Bane mother! You're killing her!" shouted Mrs Wormwood.

"Archetype! I order you to stop!" yelled Mrs Wormwood.

"But you made him human! He's ours!" Sarah Jane exclaimed.

"Don't listen to her! Keep going!" Cicely said, by his side.

Mrs Wormwood replaced her hand, and sparks started flying through the air.

Sarah Jane grabbed Cicely and the Archetype and pulled them away, Maria following.

Down a maze of passages and junctions, but Cicely trusted Sarah Jane, hand through the smoke and debris, they came to a steel door, which posed no problem for her. They ran outside, and Cicely felt it coming and dragged everyone out of the way. A split second later, the factory exploded behind them in a fireball, and Maria screamed in shock.


	12. Chapter 12

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

Several other parts of the factory also exploded, and after a few seconds peace, everyone gingerly looked up.

Then a smile spread across Sarah Jane's face and it seemed to be infectious - first Maria, then the Archetype, then Cicely grinned, laughed and giggled in sheer relief.

"We stopped them!" gasped Maria a great big smile on her face.

"Is everyone all right?" asked Sarah Jane, still revelling in her happiness.

"The factory - it's gone! And I'm free!" the boy said. "Is that good?"

Sarah Jane hugged him. "Oh, yes, that's good!"

"Without you and Cicely, I'd be dead!"

She turned to Cicely and hugged her too. For a moment, her instincts told her to break free, to get away, but she relaxed and hugged her back.

"Thank you, Sarah Jane," Cicely whispered, "For showing me how to be good."

"Don't be silly," Sarah Jane said, although Cicely could see that she appreciated it.

"You're both amazing. You were like brother and sister then."

She gasped and turned to Maria.

"You were brilliant for thinking up that idea with the phone! So brave!"

"This is happiness, yes?" asked the boy, his face lit up.

"Oh, yes!" Sarah Jane exclaimed. "We did it!"

"We did it!" echoed Maria, starting off the group hug, and everyone joined in, dancing in a circle around in the car park of what seemed like the place of all evil itself.

Cicely walked with Sarah Jane into Maria's house, as Maria was hugging her dad.

"Err...hi, hello, just checking that everything is all right," Sarah Jane said.

"Oh...thanks," Alan said, at a loss for words. "That's very neighbourly," he said eventually.

"Yes, well, sorry about before. Welcome to the neighbourhood," she said, offering her hand.

"It's certainly been eventful. Is it always like this?" he enquired, taking her hand and shaking it.

"No, no...this is when it's quiet," Sarah Jane assured him smiling. Cicely wasn't sure whether, beneath the joking, what Sarah Jane said was true.

"Who's this then?" Alan asked, looking at Cicely and the Archetype.

"This is..." Sarah Jane faltered, but then seemed to make up her mind.

"This is my son and my daughter," she said. "My adopted children."

"Hello," Cicely and the Archetype said, stepping forwards together, as if in sync.

"Hello," Alan said. "What are your names?"

"I'm Cicely," Cicely said, thinking fast. "My brother is quite shy. What's your name?"

"Erm...Alan Jackson. Didn't I see you following Kelsey and Maria?" he asked.

Cicely dropped her head. "I wondered if they would play with me. I didn't mean any trouble," she said, in an ashamed voice.

"No, no, that's alright," Alan said hastily. Cicely nearly grinned. Play up the lonely sad eight-year old girl, and human adults would be eating out the palm of your hand.

"Look at you with your front door open, after everything that's happened," a female voice wafted through the air, and a woman with a pink T-shirt and shoulder-length brunette hair walked in. She was a perfectly ordinary person, casual, average...the sort you would walk past.

"Did you hear about the chemicals? Aghh, it was a nightmare!"

She kissed Maria, and continued, "I had Ivan chasing me around the bedroom saying, "Drink it." I told him to get off, but he wasn't having it."

Alan opened his mouth to try and talk, but Chrissie cut across him.

"Why haven't you unpacked yet? Alan, I've told you, the longer things stay in boxes, the less it feels like a home!"

Maria rolled her eyes and Alan nodded in a get-it-over-with look on his face. Evidently, they were used to her rants. Cicely felt so annoyed with her, that for a moment, she deliberated simply tearing her tongue and seeing if she could rabbit on then. But she dismissed it - she had to keep herself under control if she was to live with Sarah Jane.

Eventually, Chrissie seemed to notice that there was someone else in the house.

"And...and...you are?" she asked Sarah Jane.

"Sarah Jane Smith," she said quickly. "I'm from over the road."

"This is my mother," Maria said, subduing a grin. Her father didn't even try to hide it.

"What's he wearing?" asked Chrissie, looking at the boy's white clothes.

"These are the clothes I was born in," the boy said.

"Right," Chrissie said with a wobbly smile.

"Well...erm...thank you very much, but if you don't mind, I've had a bit of a trauma. Family time. Thanks for calling in."

"Okay," Sarah Jane agreed. "We'll...we'll be off."

And she turned and left, but the boy was still in the room.

"This woman is rude," he stated, looking at Chrissie Jackson.

"Yes, definitely going. Come on!" Sarah Jane said, and firmly guided the boy and Cicely out of the room.

"You don't have to!" Maria protested.

"Come on now," Chrissie said, stepping forwards and putting her arm around Maria's shoulders.

"Invite the neighbours around and you'll never get rid of them. Next thing you know and it'll be holidays together - that is a recipe for disaster."

Sarah Jane looked slightly thoughtful, as if wondering if she had done the right thing.

"No offence," Chrissie added, not quite quickly enough.

"Nice to meet you, ...Sarah...Lou..."

And they left, just in time to avoid Chrissie ranting on about the bottle of BubbleShock and Ivan.


	13. Chapter 13

Sarah Jane AdventuresInvasion of the Bane

Night fell, as Sarah Jane carried four glasses of lemonade into the garden and set it down on a wooden table. Maria sat on the wooden chair.

"Cheers," Maria and Sarah Jane said, clicking their glasses together.

"And it's normal pop?" Maria asked, a twinkle in her eye.

"Hurray for normal pop," Sarah Jane grinned back.

"How's your friend Kelsey?" asked Sarah Jane.

"She's backtracking like mad," Maria said. "Saying that it was all hallucinations. Saying that there's no such thing as aliens."

"But we know better," Sarah Jane winking at Maria.

And then, Cicely and the Archetype walked in through the gate. Instead of the white medical dress, he was dressed in a normal set of clothes - trousers, a T-shirt and a brown jacket.

"Oh, that's more like it," Maria said, settling back into the chair.

"Cicely's barely left his side since the factory," Sarah Jane smiled. "I think then they realised how alike they were."

"Despite being about 271 years and 134 days older than him," Cicely said, dropping into her seat.

"This is good?" he asked, looking at his new clothes.

"Yep," Maria said.

Sarah Jane patted the bench and the boy sat down in between Sarah Jane and Cicely.

"How are you going to adopt them then?" asked Maria.

"You need forms and things. Behind are you going to say their mothers are? The Bane mother and an extinct red-skinned unidentified alien?"

"Mr Smith sorted that," Sarah Jane said, bringing out a slim file. "Officially done and dusted. All we need are names."

Cicely felt a thrill of excitement. It was really going to happen. She was going to be a part of Sarah Jane's family!

"You can choose your own," Maria suggested.

"I'd like yours - Maria," the boy said.

"Maybe not," Maria giggled.

"How about Jack. Josh? Nathan?"

"Edward? Charles? John?" Cicely suggested.

"Harry? Alistair? Luke?" Sarah Jane pondered.

Cicely immediately knew that she had hit the jackpot. There was certain rightness about the name, that suited him perfectly, and Maria leaned forwards and said, "I like Luke."

"I like Luke," Sarah Jane agreed.

"Me too," Cicely said.

"If you like Luke, I like Luke," the boy smiled.

"That's the name I was going to choose if ever I had kids," Sarah Jane said, her face saturated with happiness. "But it never happened."

"But now it has," Maria pointed out. "And what about you? Do you want to keep Cicely?"

Cicely hesitated for a full second.

"Yes," she said eventually. "It's the name you know me by now. I'm not changing it. I am Cicely."

"Luke and Cicely Smith," Maria smiled, turning to Sarah Jane.

"You're a mum!" she grinned.

"I am!" she said, in a very surprised voice.

"Does that make us brother and sister?" Cicely asked, looking at Luke.

"Yes!" Sarah Jane laughed, and she held hands with Luke, and Luke held Cicely's hand as well.

For once, Cicely could forget that she was designed to hunt humans, that she could see into the future and fiddle with people's minds, or even that her skin was sparkling with a thousand different shapes and sizes. She was content. She had a life, a mother and a brother, and Maria was her friend.

"All this time, I never asked if you had a boyfriend, or..."

But Sarah Jane replied, "Oh, there was only ever one man for me, and after him...nothing compared. Whether I was your age, you see, or grown up, I'd think I know what I want and then I'd be sorted. But you never really know what you want. You never grow up, not really, you never sort it all out. So, I thought, I can handle life on my own. But after today," she smiled at them, as if a switch had been flicked, "I don't want to!"

Luke looked up at the sky.

"What's that?" he asked. We all looked up.

"It's just a plane," Maria said, watching the white light pass quickly by over their heads.

"That's a flying machine, right?" asked Luke, gazing upwards. Cicely gave his hand a gentle squeeze, remembering just in time how fragile humans were.

"Or perhaps it's a spaceship," Sarah Jane grinned, and everyone's face lit up.

Sarah Jane looked up at the sky.

"I saw amazing things out there in space," Sarah Jane said, softly.

"But there's strangeness wherever you turn. Life on Earth can be an adventure too. You just need to know where to look."

And I grinned, skin sparkling in the night, happy that I, Cicely Smith, had found my place in the Universe at last.

However, there was the small matter of the vision that I had seen before. A woman, facing Sarah Jane. She was garbed in a purple hooded robe instead of a leather jacket, and she had a pleading, almost greedy look in her eye, but it was definitely her.

Mrs Wormwood.

THE END

CICELY'S STORY WILL CONTINUE SOON IN _REVENGE OF THE SLITHEEN._


End file.
